a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Off-Day Odds and Ends

One.Randy Rigby on whether the Jazz plan to use their cap space this off-season:
Well, I’m not gonna say def–for sure. I’m leaving that to Dennis [Lindsey], and then, Dennis is brilliant. I think we’ve seen the results of what Dennis Lindsey has brought to this mart-place and to our team, and a great asset and resource for the Utah Jazz.

And I think, the plan is to utilize cap space at some point, in this progress, that we’ve talked about. And so, it may be some this year. It may be all of it later, in the next year or two. I think in the relative short term, you will see that too–that ass*–that tool being used. …

And so, I think the netur–natural evolution is now going to be, in us being financially in a good place, which we really are, is to now say, “Who are the right additional veteran components you add to that team, to now take us to those next level?”

And that is what will happen, and that’s what we’re going to be doing, because it will just, and I think what’s exciting to me, is actually those individuals, those players who are also say, “Hey, this is an exciting young team. I can now come and be a part of that team and be that difference-maker, to now take them to those new heights.”

And you’re gonna have players that are gonna want to really be there and be that difference-maker.

* Yes, Rigby said “dat ass.”

Two.What color is this dress?

For the record, these are the colors I see.

Three.Phil Johnson on coaches and players having a responsibility to talk to the media:
Today’s world is really surprising, what’s going on. You’ve got a player’s association, what, she’s director of the player’s association now? She’s talking about the press people shouldn’t be in the locker room, and, I mean, writers shouldn’t be in the locker room?

And, I mean, guys are, you know, you got guys in football that are saying they won’t talk, and they act like, you know, that they’re doing you a favor. It’s kinda disturbing, the whole thing to me. Isn’t it to you guys, to have what’s going on, to, I mean, it’s, you, the press, you have a job to do.

And you know what, it surprised me. For instance, last night, to be honest with you, I mean, I think our guys were having a hard time getting some of our players to do interviews for the TV proje–broadcast last night. [Elijah] Millsap’s the only one that came on.

So, you know what? Win, lose or draw, go out and talk to the press, give ’em, answer their questions, and go home. You know? That’s what it’s all about. So, it’s a little disturbing to me. Isn’t it, you guys?

1280 host No. 1: Very much so.

1280 host No. 2: Well, that’s, and you know, and it kind of throws me for a loop a little bit, because, you know, I came in here in the market in 2003, so I obviously had a lot of years of being able to stand outside those locker rooms and interview you and Jerry [Sloan], and whether it was a big win or a horrible loss, Jerry, you could set your watch to him. You knew exactly when he was gonna walk out of that door and address the media. And–

1280 host No. 1: He didn’t waste your time.

1280 host No. 2: He didn’t. He knew you had a job to do, and he respected it, and your staff always was tremendous.

PJ: Well, you know what? He put it on the players too. He sa–a couple of ’em, a couple of times went in the back room, and acted like they were getting treatments and stuff. And he told ’em, “Hey, none of that. If you lose, win or lose, get out there and do your job” and that type of thing.

And so, but that goes back — you know what, Jerry was, I watched that, him as a player. And he was, he, the press loved him in Chicago because he would talk to them. Win or lose. He wasn’t trying to court them or anything, but he was there, and he would do the interview, and some of the players wouldn’t and that type of thing.

And so, as a player, it’s just, it just makes sense, and as a coach, it just makes sense to be cordial and do your job. And hey, it’s no fun. That’s, that was the best part for me, as an assistant coach. I didn’t have to do that that much.

Four. Young Quin Snyder with young Danny Ferry in 1988, via @si_vault:

Five.Quin Snyder on why he started Trey Burke in the second half against the Lakers:
You know, Dante [Exum], I felt like, was tired. And just looked at the way he was moving, I thought he came out with some juice.

But you know, I felt like Trey was — he didn’t have, you know, a really remarkable line where you could look at and say he scored or he’s doing this maybe the way he was doing, playing against San Antonio. But I felt like it was something that, it could help our team. And I also liked the idea of Dante on Jeremy Lin off the bench as well…

You guys know I make a little less of the starting lineup in my mind, especially with our team, because, you know, we have the inconsistency with youth, at times with individual players’ performances, and we have the same thing, as you saw last night, with our team in general.

We’re, we’ve got four rookies in the rotation. We start a 19-year-old, a 24-year-old and a 22-year-old, and Gordon [Hayward] who’s our elder statesman. So, it, our oldest player now, I think, is a rookie, in Joe Ingles. So, in some sense, we, you know, we have Joe and Elijah who are a little older, but they’ve never played in this league, and so I don’t want to accept some of the inconsistencies. I think we have to really dig in on ’em.

We’ve got a group that’s been honest with themself all year, and Trey maybe as much as anybody. You know, I’ve said really hard things to Trey, and asked him to come off the bench, and he’s embraced that role. And that may not be the role for the rest of his career or the rest of this year, but right where we are right now, I think it helps the team and, just like I thought it helped the team last night for him to start the second half.

Six.From time to time, I take a look at the search terms that brought people to this site. One that pops up more often than you’d think is “Is Carlos Boozer gay?” Well, Randy Rigby possibly outed Carlos Boozer during his weekly interview on 1280 with this quote: